大象传媒

If you鈥檝e ever dreamed of starring in a West End show or headlining your own pop concert, then a national talent contest would seem a good place to start your quest for stardom. Dance duo Shannon Davies and Eloise Hull from Milford Haven certainly thought so when they signed up one of the biggest talent contests in the country, the 2012 UK Festival4Stars competition. The nine year olds couldn't wait to compete and proud mums Tracey and Michelle cheered them on.

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鈥淭his was a two day dance festival so they were excited,鈥� said Michelle. 鈥淭hey were nervous, but they did really well.鈥� A share of a 拢100,000 prize fund, the promise of record contracts and the chance to perform in LA tempted hundreds of youngsters like Shannon and Eloise to sign-up. But the road to the finals didn't come cheap. Entry fees, accommodation costs and travel expenses to attend heats all over the UK added up to hundreds of pounds. But Michelle and Tracy thought it was money well spent when the girls danced their way to a runners-up spot at the finals last October - and, they thought, a share of that massive prize fund.

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鈥淭hey were presented with one certificate and told their prize would follow a later date,鈥� added Michelle. Like Eloise and Shannon, Musical Theatre student Rosie Johns from Barry thought her star was rising when she finished runner up in the finals of the singing competition. 鈥淭he prizes were promised as recording contracts in LA and Dubai, saying that we'd be signed up with recording contracts,鈥� she said. But just like Shannon and Eloise, after the curtain closed on the competition Rosie鈥檚 prize was nowhere to be seen.

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As far as the contestants were concerned, the competition had run smoothly, from the heats through to the final, but behind the glitz and glamour all was not well. Two different companies had been involved in running the 2012 competition. The heats were organised by Cheshire-based UK Festival 4 Stars, but by the time the finals came around another company Festival4Stars (Talent Search UK Ltd) had become involved. The names were similar but tensions between the two companies cast serious doubt on whether those glamorous prizes would ever materialise. The trouble is no-one told the contestants, so they couldn't understand why 8 months on, they were still empty handed.

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And the Welsh finalist who lost out most was Louise Hall from Pontypool. Louise won the overall singing competition and thought she had bagged a very special prize. 鈥淭hey told me I'd won a trip to New York to release a mini album and a 拢25,000 development fund,鈥� said Louise. 鈥淚 thought it was going to be my big break, but nothing's materialised.鈥�

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Plenty of other contestants are unhappy too. A Facebook group has been inundated with complaints from families who say they can't get straight answers from the organisers. One dance group say they were promised the chance to perform at Disneyland Paris. But when we checked, Disney told us they had nothing to do with the competition, and had never agreed to provide any prizes.

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X-Ray contacted the companies involved. The firm which ran the heats for the 2012 competition, UK Festival4Stars Ltd, say they had nothing to do with the finals, where the prizes should have been awarded. They say they pulled out due to financial problems and an issue with a member of staff, which meant they weren't able to contact contestants to warn them about the difficulties behind the scenes. They add that the finals were run by a separate company, FestivalForStars (Talent Search UK Ltd).

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So we contacted FestivalForStars (Talent Search UK Ltd), but they insist they're not to blame either. They insist the finals were still being run by the previous company and they just offered support. However, they also told us that Louise Hall will still get a prize, although they're not saying exactly what and Rosie, Shannon and Eloise will get a 拢20 shopping voucher each. Not exactly the star prizes the girls were expecting.

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Getting hacked is a pain. A criminal gets into your email account and sends everyone you know a fraudulent message. Gardening expert and writer Lynne Allbutt from Crickhowell knows all about this. When her email address was hacked last year, things quickly became serious. One of the people who received a hoax email from the hackers was an elderly friend, who was about to wire the fraudsters 700 euros. 鈥淗e was very upset on the phone鈥�, she explained.鈥� He said actually I am just about to wire the money, I am in the bank. That鈥檚 where the dynamics changed. It went from just being an inconvenience to suddenly I felt violated, felt very vulnerable鈥�.

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The problem is we鈥檙e all being a bit too lax about our online security. New research from Ofcom says 55 per cent of us are using the same password for most of the websites we visit and 26 per cent use easy to remember passwords like our birthdays or the names of friends and family.

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Ethical hacker and security expert Jason Hart, who represents eCrime Wales, says that makes things far too easy for the hackers , 鈥淲e use the same password, a family name, a pet name, a hobby an interest, it鈥檚 very common to do that鈥�. And too many of us increase the risk of being hacked by publicising this information on social networking sites.

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So to try to protect your online security, here are some top tips:

鈥⑻鼶on鈥檛 use personal information like your pet鈥檚 name or your date of birth that could be found on social networking sites.
鈥⑻齌ry to change your passwords on a regular basis.
鈥⑻齍se at least eight characters per password 鈥� the longer the password the better.
鈥⑻齀ncorporate numbers and symbols into the password and combine upper and lower case letters.
And if you鈥檙e always forgetting your password, then use a phrase that鈥檚 easy to remember. Take the first letter of each word and then substitute one or two of these letters with a number or a symbol. For example: X-Ray is my favourite programme on 大象传媒 One, could become: XR1mfPo大象传媒! Get it?!听听

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You can also find lots more useful information on the website.